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Lobster Au Gratin

A baked lobster dish topped with bread crumbs and fried parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Lobster Au Gratin

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the lobster

  1. Cut the cooked lobster in half and save the shells.

  2. Remove the meat from the shells and place the softer portions on a plate.

  3. Cut the white meat into smaller pieces.

Make the filling

  1. In a saucepan, combine the lobster meat with milk thickened with flour, chopped shallot, black pepper, salt, butter, and cayenne pepper.

  2. Warm the mixture thoroughly over low heat.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill the lobster shells with the mixture and sprinkle with bread crumbs.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 10 minutes.

  3. Use a salamander or broiler to brown the top.

  4. Serve very hot, garnished with fried parsley.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Flour + shallottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cooked lobster
Provides the main meat and flavor of the gratin.
Milk
Forms a creamy sauce that keeps the filling moist.
Flour
Thickens the milk so the filling holds together rather than running.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the sauce.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping that browns under heat.

The step that matters

Browning the top under the salamander or broiler. The bread crumbs brown quickly under intense direct heat, so the top can scorch before the filling is hot. Watch closely and remove it as soon as it is golden.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, milk, flour, pepper, butter, bread, parsley):

  1. Shallotthe original
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Carrotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, milk, flour, pepper, butter, bread, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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